You Are Not Your Body

“You are NOT your body, but you do take it with you everywhere you go!”

The words spoken by my pastor stunned me! They turned my perspective in a completely new direction. I look in the mirror and assume that what I see is ME. But it isn’t! It is simply the “house” I live in, or as Paul put it, “the earthly tent” I live in. (2 Cor. 5:1) It is what houses the real me. Janie cannot be seen with human eyes; she can only be known to others through what comes out of her life, but God sees her!

In my journal on August 20, 1985, the verse that captured my attention was John 6:63.

“It is the spirit that quickens; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life.”

In my journal I wrote:

Father, the flesh is of no help at all; it’s the spirit that makes me alive, and Jesus said that His words are spirit and so His words make me alive. That’s why I must live in Your Word and let Your Word live in me for that is my life source. That’s funny, I always thought my body is what makes me alive, but when my body dies, I will still be alive because I am a spirit, and the spirit is what makes the body alive.

This body will one day cease to live, but it is only the house Janie lives in. The day I take my final breath here on earth, I will take my first breath in Heaven! My body will no longer hold me because I am NOT by body; I will finally be set free from this “tent” I live in, and my spirit will soar in worship of the One who sees the real me ~ the One who made me, knows me, and sees me!

My Prayer:

Father, I look forward to the day when my body will no longer be necessary. I will stand bow before You without its constraints. Until that day, may the words you speak be spirit and life to me and may You be seen in me! ~ Amen